


Sing A New Song

by BlackEyedGirl



Category: Glee
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Jossed, Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:41:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackEyedGirl/pseuds/BlackEyedGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written before 1.12-Mattress aired, so featuring a completely non-canonical version of Finn and Will finding out. Revealing of secrets breaks Glee Club apart; tears and 1970s pop music bring them back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing A New Song

This is what happened:

He was on his way to Glee with Puck. Finn had his arm slung over Puck's shoulder. He remembers this because Puck had slid from his grasp when he figured out what the yelling was about, long before Finn had put it together. Finn hadn't been so quick to realise – he never is.

Mrs Schuester was standing in the hallway with Quinn and even Finn had thought that was weird. He hadn't been able to remember them even speaking before, except for Mrs Schuester getting them all high that one time.

And Mrs Schuester was yelling, which kind of ruled out any normal teacher's-wife type of conversation. "You didn't think that was important?" Her voice had been really high and Finn remembers that Quinn had flinched back. It hadn't stopped Mrs Schuester. "Will's not _stupid_. If it's yours and your quarterback's we maybe – maybe – pass it off. One hot blonde, one cute brunet. But you don't think he'll notice if his little girl looks like you and _him_?"

She had shrieked and then she was pointing at Puck; there was a long moment when Finn couldn't figure out what she meant. That was when he noticed that Puck was suddenly more than arms-length away, that Mercedes didn't look shocked and that Quinn looked horrified.

Mr Schuester had walked out of the choir room. He looked sick. "Terri."

"Will. Will, please. I just wanted you to-."

Finn couldn't see straight anymore. Everything was blurry. He didn't see Mr Schue take off down the hallway, with Mrs Schuester running after him. He didn't register Rachel shaking his arm or Quinn saying, "Finn. Finn!"

He had stepped away from the club and walked the other direction down the hallway.

 

* * *

Finn missed one Glee practice and then another, until it stopped being weird not always having the songs running in the back of his mind. He didn't really expect anyone to come looking for him, what with Mr Schuester having sort of a breakdown and no one else talking. He started to think that maybe Glee would end up just a weird blip on this one year – one that everyone forgot about long before graduation.

Mr Schuester kept turning up to Spanish, but he wasn't all _there_, and it just got even easier for Finn to fake his attention. No one noticed.

Rachel did try and speak to him every so often. ("Finn. Finn, I know that you feel betrayed and trust me I'm not trying to minimise the impact of Quinn and Puck and their subterfuge but I really wish you would come back to-." / "Rachel. I don't even know what that means.")

He thought that maybe Kurt would try, if Finn weren't walking around with a slushie in his hand so often. But he couldn't go back to Glee. Not when Quinn might be there looking sad, and Puck looking guilty and everyone else watching him like he's something to be sorry for. The idiot who didn't realise his girlfriend was lying to him. He had _known_ you couldn't get pregnant from a hot tub. But even when he was asking the big question (because he was a teenage boy and even when you knew, you asked) he hadn't thought about any other answer. Is it mine: yes. Because what else would she have said?

Somebody was yelling his name. Finn was on the ground and he had punched the dirt beside Puck's face. Puck had a bloody nose and they had both tossed their helmets at some point or another. Puck hadn't fought back. That was what stopped Finn in the end; he was on the ground and he had Puck pinned and Puck didn't fight back. Puck always fought back.

He thought that maybe Quinn had been the one shouting. But why would Quinn be at football?

When he took his hand away, Kurt was staring at him.

 

* * *

Thursday afternoons are weird now. There's a gap in his head where Glee should fit, and even though they're not speaking anymore, he still runs into the others. Lost in the hallways like they don't know what else to do. Tina's hand on Artie's chair and Mercedes' fingers resting in the bend of Kurt's elbow. Puck and Rachel and Quinn, not looking at each other and not looking at him. Brittany, Santana, Mike and Matt, who don't know what to do with all this drama they didn't make.

This is what happens:

More yelling. Inside the choir room this time. Mrs Schuester (brave of her to show up there): "This isn't all my fault, Will."

"No, it's not. It takes one to lie and one to believe it. But don't think that makes you any less-"

"I _needed_ this. I needed this to keep you from running off with your germophobic harlot. So don't you judge me."

"You lied to me. And do you know what really kills me, Terri? You dragged those kids into it. My kids, and you just… I think that's the part I really can't forgive. A scared teenage girl and you what? Blackmail her? And then upset _their_ lives because she messed up the story you were spinning me?"

"Ohhh…." If she were a guy, Finn would have said she growled. "You and those damn kids. Of course that's what it comes down to. You and your precious club. That's _why_ I had to lie, Will, don't you get it? They were always going to be more important than me. But a baby would-"

"So you had to take that away from me too? Was that it, Ter? It made me happy and it made them happy, so you had to ruin it? These kids needed me - they let me help them be better. And all they wanted was to be heard, for me to listen to them and do my best. They don't expect miracles. Neither did I. All I wanted was to be your husband. For you to _treat me_ like your husband. Like the person you wanted to make a family with. Not someone who wasn't even worthy of…." Those last words get stuck in his throat and he stops talking.

Mrs Schuester doesn't know what to say either. "… I didn't mean to…"

Mr Schue has it this time. "Go, please."

She walks out of the room, past the crowd that now seems to include the whole of what was once the Glee Club. Her make-up is a mess and her heels click on the floor. Finn could almost feel sorry for her.

But Mr Schuester hasn't left the choir room. And when the other noises go away, they can hear him.

Rachel braces herself against the locker. "He's crying. I can't deal with a grown man crying, I don't know what to do."

Finn looks at her curiously. "The same thing you do with anyone else."

He walks into the room. Mr Schue is sitting on the piano stool. He's crying like he maybe won't stop. Like nothing's going to make this better, not ever. Finn knows the feeling. And he owes Mr Schue one, from that other time that things got so messed up they forgot that guys don't do this.

Finn has the advantage of height and reach. He sits down beside Mr Schuester and wraps his arms around his shoulders. When Finn hugs someone, they damn well know it. Mr Schuester coughs. "Finn. I haven't seen you for a while. How are-?" He can't finish the sentence.

Finn says, "Yeah. Things are… not great."

That's almost a laugh. "I'm pretty sure I'm getting divorced. That's not great."

"No," Finn says. "That pretty much sucks."

"I just…" Mr Schue looks at the piano. "I really wanted a baby. And I know that's not something that makes a whole lot of sense to you right now, but-."

Puck is hovering by the doorway. "It kind of- it makes sense to me, okay? I- Look. You can still have a kid. You're the kind of guy that chicks- that chicks want to make houses with. The take home to mom kind of guy. You should be grateful for that, man. You're not the one they…"

Finn looks at Puck; Puck stops and looks away.

Quinn is the next into the room. "Mr Schuester, I'm so- I'm so sorry. I should have-."

"No," Mr Schuester stops her. "It wasn't your lie. You're taking on a woman's responsibility, Quinn, but you're not all the way there yet. No one has the right to expect that of you. And with your parents, and with this town… It wasn't your fault."

"I should have told… someone. The other stuff."

Mr Schuester looks up at her. "Maybe. But I understand that lie. All Terri had to do was-." His shoulders shake again. "I should go. You kids shouldn't have to see all this mess."

"We're really…" Finn thinks about it. "We're pretty okay with mess. We get a lot of it. And anyway… We were actually coming to… practice. Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we're behind schedule."

Mr Schuester turns his head. "Really?"

Rachel runs into the choir room as though she's coming onstage, hitting her mark. "Really. Yes, definitely. Right guys? Come on, come on, rehearsal time. You just sit there, Mr Schuester and we'll…"

"Jam," Mercedes says. "We're gonna jam a little and figure out what to sing on this fine afternoon."

Mr Schuester nods once and stays behind the piano. The club files into the room and sits down, scattered across the room the way they were before they were friends. And that's the problem. They all like – really like – Mr Schue, but they're pissed at each other and don't know how to do this anymore. There's silence for a while.

Puck is sitting nearer to Finn than he has been since this happened. He's looking at Mr Schue and there's that frown again.

Finn leans over. "You weren't just being an asshole."

"Huh?" Puck looks surprised to be spoken to.

"You actually- you wanted the baby, wanted to help her out. That's why you were such a jerk to Quinn."

"Hey, man-."

"That doesn't make it okay. It definitely doesn't make us okay. It's just- you weren't _just_ being an asshole. That's weird."

On the other side of the room, Rachel's voice is raised. She's shouting at Quinn but her eyes are bright in that way she gets when she didn't mean for it to happen and now she's upset too. Quinn's cheeks are flushed and her lip quivers. Finn's not sure they can cope with any more crying.

He casts a quick look over to the piano, where Mr Schuester looks ready to run away for good. And that really will be the end of all this.

There is an ear-splitting whistle. "Hello? Don't make me do that again – it's terrible for my voice." Kurt. "This is Glee club. This is sacred ground. A safe space for everyone who wants to raise their voice in song. No more yelling. There's been quite enough of that."

"You have another suggestion?" Puck asks.

Kurt glares. He closes his eyes and opens his mouth. And really, Kurt's a genius and Finn will never know what would have happened next if that hadn't been true. Finn isn't good with words. He doesn't know how to describe Kurt's voice. True, maybe. And sweet, if he has to pick another one. It slips into the crack in the first word but comes flying out by the end. "_Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk_." He walks across the room on the tips of his toes. He sits beside Mr Schue at the piano and says, "Maestro, if I may."

Rachel is singing the next line before Kurt's fingers have found the keys. She's so much faster, and so much smarter than Finn. Not just Finn. She changes the first word and dives in to the song. "_He says I began to sing long before I could talk_."

The girls pick it up faster but by the time they get to _melody can_, there are twelve voices.

Kurt does some fiddly thing on the keys and calls instructions. "Where are my instruments? And none of that 'I don't know the song', Puckerman, we both know that's a lie. And even if it wasn't, you're entirely talented enough to pick up a simple chord progression."

Finn finds himself behind the drum-kit. The drumsticks aren't there and he looks up to find Puck holding them. Finn stretches out his hand for the toss, grinning when they land safely in his grip. Puck's smile is halfway there, with his fingers tentatively feeling out the guitar strings.

They hit the chorus too hard, all together. If it were a competition, they wouldn't all be on the melody line like this. But it isn't. So they belt it out, trying to make the windows shake and their teacher smile: "_Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing_."

Mr Schuester, who had to have known what was coming, still looks away from them for a second.

Tina ends up alone on, "_I ask in all honesty_."

Then Artie on, "_What would life be_?"

Matt and Mike split the next line and that leaves Finn, somehow, with the second verse. He's got a sneaking suspicion it was supposed to be the first verse before Kurt got his hands on the song.

He should be looking at Quinn or Rachel but his eyes end up on Puck and the guitar. Finn shrugs. "_I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore. If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before_." Puck laughs and kind of shakes his head. "_But I have a talent, a wonderful thing_."

He leaves the second half for Mercedes, who nails the _everyone listens_ like she's been waiting for it.

Puck comes back in on the chorus, his deeper voice ringing on _what are we_?

They run headlong into the bridge. Rachel starts, soaring into _lucky_. And then she waits for Quinn. She waits, and their voices dance over and under: _the girl with golden/dark-brown hair_.

And that leaves Brittany and Santana, leaping into _What a joy! What a life! What a chance!_ just as though they're cheers.

They all get out of time with each other on the last chorus. _Thank you_s falling about the place, as they try to improvise choreography and sing at the same time. Kurt's frowning but not enough that Finn worries. They finish split seconds apart from each other. Finn's is the last voice. _To me_.

Mr Schuester swipes the sleeve of his shirt over his eyes. He moves Kurt's hands away from the piano and he's half-talking to himself. "We did an ABBA medley once, you know. There are some really good-." There's an unhappy clash of chords and Finn can just pick out a few of the words Mr Schue was trying to sing. _Slipping through my…_

Rachel is faster again. "Well, I don't know, Mr Schue. I think maybe ABBA might be a little obvious. Even if they do want 'standards'. That song especially, not that it wasn't…"

Puck jumps in. "I mean, what else would we have to do with it? Dancing Queen?" He looks at Kurt, though there's no bite in his tone.

Kurt smiles. "The fact you were so quickly able to come up with another ABBA song rather undercuts your point, Noah. Though for once, your sobriquet is mostly accurate. And I'm flattered by your interest in my dance ability." He kicks up his leg and grabs his foot in a stretch that has every other person in the room wincing. He lowers his leg again and walks over to sing-whisper into Puck's ear. "But, boy you're only a child." He smirks.

Rachel is still looking at Mr Schue. Her voice is hesitant. "We would be good, though?" It's not a question but she makes it one. Or a promise. We'll be good.

Mr Schuester puts his hand on her shoulder. "I think you're right, Rachel. There would be other choirs singing it, and we have our own songs. But if you guys did sing it… Well. There would be nobody who could do better."

They're all clustered round the piano now. Someone's going to have to get Brad back for their next rehearsal. For now they just smile at each other until Mr Schuester says, "Kurt, you think you can give us a hand on piano for today?"

"Just for today," Kurt concedes and settles back on the piano stool. Finn fills in the unspoken, 'you're all very lucky I never missed a piano lesson.'

Quinn clears her throat. "How about Don't Stop Believing? It's been… a really long time."

They back away to opening positions. It has been a really, stupidly long time, but Finn knows this one. He's pretty sure he'll always know this one.

Mr Schuester stands to one side of the piano. If his eyes are still wet and his hand shakes a little when he leads them in, no one says anything. "Okay. From the top."

**Author's Note:**

> The song they're singing is ABBA's '[Thank You For the Music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7LeeVSd6dk)'. The one Will starts on the piano is 'Slipping Through My Fingers' ("The feeling that I'm losing her forever / And without really entering her world"). The one Kurt is teasing Puck with is 'Does Your Mother Know'. And title from 'Chiquitita'. Plus obviously Puck references Dancing Queen.


End file.
